Doug Fister makes his return from the disabled list, hopping back in the starting rotation against his old team in Monday night’s game against Seattle. After missing him for four turns through the rotation, it’ll be like trading for him all over again.

“I think it’s going to be a huge lift for us. Obviously he was outstanding last year when he came over,” fellow starter Rick Porcello said of last year’s trade deadline acquisition, who was 8-1 with a 1.79 ERA down the stretch drive to the American League Central title. “To have him back in the rotation, get some consistency going and try and build off of this series and have a good road trip. I’m excited.”

Aside from Wednesday’s rehab start in Triple-A Toledo, Fister hasn’t pitched in game action since straining his left side in his first start of the season on April 7, so Monday’s start may have a bit of an Opening Day feeling for him.

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“To a point. It’s been quite a few days since I’ve been out there, with these guys, on the mound. There’s some high anticipation to get out there and do this already,” he said Sunday. “I’m just focusing on today, but I’m excited for tomorrow, excited to get back, and do what we have to do to get this thing going again.”

Fister’s return will certainly help a Tigers team that is just 4-6 in its last 10, and 5-10 after a 9-3 start.

But the rest of the rotation — anchored during Fister’s month-long absence by the always-steady Justin Verlander and the surprising rookie, Drew Smyly — has already gotten a lift from a couple of tweaks that got the other two starters, Porcello and Max Scherzer, back on track.

Porcello stretched his streak of quality starts to five Sunday, striking out five in 6 1/3 innings of work to earn his second straight win. And it was his second straight stellar outing, after pitching coach Jeff Jones convinced him to go to his old high school “hands over the head” windup.

“I thought he was real good today. He just ran out of gas. I might have been one batter too late for him, to be honest with you. But he pitched extremely well, and that gives us a chance,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “Particularly when you’re not scoring runs, like we think we’re capable of scoring, when your pitching can shut them down like that, it gives you a chance to win low-scoring games. We just need to hit a little bit better, and score some more runs.”

Scherzer’s bounce-back may have been a bit more pronounced.

Coming off two straight outings that could be most nicely termed “shaky,” Jones made a bit of a tweak in Scherzer’s delivery, too.

“He was terrific (Saturday). I think sometimes there’s a level of ability, pride, whatever else, and sometimes I think you do better, when you’ve struggled enough that you’re more apt to make adjustments. If you’re up and down, OK, not great, but not bad, you’re floundering around, sometimes you don’t make those adjustments, because (you think) I’m doing OK,” Leyland said. “I think in this situation, Scherzer was a very good student, and Jones was a very good teacher. It worked out real good. Hopefully, we can get that consistency going. That would be good tonic for all of us. Huge.”

For both pitchers, it helped that the tweaks paid immediate dividends.

“When you have some early success with it, then guys are more apt to stick with it. If it doesn’t work right away, sometimes guys want to go back to their old tricks, and you don’t get the benefit of it,” Leyland admitted.

“It’s just like anything, pitching coach, third base coach. You don’t notice the third base coach until he gets somebody thrown out. You don’t realize how good Gene Lamont is. Same thing with Jeff Jones. We don’t realize how good Jeff Jones is — he only gets (crap) when they’re not doing well. They just take for granted, (but) this guy’s really good.

“Now, is that going to make these guys consistent for the rest of the year? I don’t know. I can’t answer that.”

There’s a mental aspect to Fister’s return, too. He left one of his final spring training starts with a sore finger, only to have to leave his first regular-season start with an injury, too. But he can’t take the fear of injury out to the mound with him.

“No. That’s one of the things I really focus on not letting happen, because that can really cause problems. When you’re tentative, when you’re scared, or not doing things normal, that’s when you get hurt, that’s when things are not right. So I’m going about business the same way, whether it’s an approach, whether it’s the preparation, or just the execution — it’s all the same way.”

Setting the bar awfully high

Jose Valverde is hardly the only closer to struggle across Major League Baseball this season.

But that doesn’t mean that the Tigers don’t need the big man.

“I think in Valverde’s case, he’s not quite as sharp with a couple pitches and we’re spoiled. I think it’s a combination of both those things. Probably not entirely on his game,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “I’m not worried about that. Closers have to have short memories, whether it’s good or bad. He’s a terrific closer. Like I said, he’s not real sharp right now. On the other side of that coin, I think we’re a little spoiled. When you save 49 straight, you get spoiled. It’s really a big magnitude to let a couple get away.”

Valverde was a perfect 49-for-49 in save opportunities in 2011, closing out a lot of wins for the starters that might otherwise have gone by the wayside. Add in his two successful saves at the end of the 2010 season, and he was actually on a 51-save streak when he blew the save opening day.

His next streak didn’t last nearly as long, ending Saturday, when he blew his second save in six chances. Granted, he blew seven saves in back-to-back seasons with Houston and Arizona in 2007-08, but hadn’t blown more than four in any of his other seven big-league seasons.

There had to be a bit of relief — at least among the fans — when Valverde got right back on the horse Sunday, and got his fifth save of the season, closing out a 3-1 win over the White Sox.

“Yesterday is over already. I do my job today. But the Tigers pay me yesterday, pay me today. Yesterday is over already. Same for last year. Last year is gone,” Valverde said. “It’s never easy. I’m doing my job. Yesterday I don’t do my job, today I do my job. This is what I want, my team is winning, I do my save. It doesn’t matter how you do it. I have to do it.”

Short hops

Farmington Hills native Jenny Birmelin, who swam the English Channel, was one of the folks invited to throw out the first pitch before Sunday’s game. ... Miguel Cabrera was 2-for-5 with a double Sunday, and has hit safely in 13 of his last 17 games. ... The Tigers optioned the contract of right-handed reliever Brayan Villarreal to Triple-A Toledo after the game, to make room on the 25-man roster for Fister’s return from the disabled list. It’s his second trip up and down already this season, appearing in just 1/3 of an inning in his second stint with the parent club, this one for a total of 10 days.